i've been waiting for this...well, i've been waiting for an indictment, but this is good too.

one question is -- since he's not been indicted (yet), what're all the legal costs about?
______________________

Ohio Congressman Will Not Seek Re-Election

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 7, 2006
Filed at 8:27 a.m. ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, under scrutiny in a corruption scandal involving convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, announced Monday that he was abandoning his re-election campaign.

The Republican had insisted he would not resign, even if indicted over his dealings with Abramoff. In his first primary test in a decade, Ney won 68 percent of the vote May 2 against a little-known opponent.

But in a statement released by his campaign Monday morning, Ney said he had decided to withdraw from his race for a seventh term.

''Ultimately this decision came down to my family. I must think of them first, and I can no longer put them through this ordeal,'' said Ney, who has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.

He plans to serve the remainder of his term, his statement said.

Ney spokeswoman Katie Harbath said the congressman was not available for comment.

Earlier Monday, Ohio state Sen. Joy Padgett told The Associated Press that Ney called her Saturday and asked the fellow Republican to run in his place, saying defending himself has been a strain on his family.

''It's a very sad time,'' Padgett said of Ney's decision, first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on its Web site.

Ney told her ''just that there's only so much he can take. He said, 'I have to do this,''' Padgett said.

Padgett said she would run for Ney's seat in the 18th district, a conservative region of farms, mines Appalachian hills and Rust Belt cities in central Ohio.

Ney faced a tough challenge in November from Democrat Zack Space, a law director who had made the Justice Department's investigation into Ney a focus of his campaign. Space's campaign did not return a message Monday morning.

Federal prosecutors have described Ney in court documents as having received gifts, trips and other things of value from Abramoff and his associates. Ney and some of his aides, including his chief of staff, William Heaton, have been subpoenaed, though Ney has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Neil Volz, who was Ney's chief of staff before Heaton, pleaded guilty in Washington in May, admitting he participated in a conspiracy to corrupt Ney, his staff and other members of Congress. The Democratic National Committee said Volz's plea agreement put a ''Republican culture of corruption one step closer'' to Ney, whom it called ''Exhibit A.''

Ney spokesman Brian Walsh announced in late June that he was leaving the congressman's office, along with Heaton and another aide.

For the first three months of 2006, Ney's campaign spent more than it raised, a deficit he blamed on mounting legal costs. In the past three months, it was unusually intense campaigning in his expansive rural district that caused the incumbent to spend $52,675 more than donors gave him, he said.

''I'm embattled and attacked; I understand that,'' Ney told The AP last month after Space raised about $190,000 more than Ney for the quarter.

Ney, 52, told the Tribune-Review that his family had not asked him to drop out, but he wanted to spare them anyway.

''I'm doing this for one reason: my family. My wife and two children have been through enough,'' he said.

Ney also was frustrated that the scandal was overshadowing his work, the newspaper reported.

Padgett, who said she has known Ney for at least 20 years, was flattered that he and House Majority Leader John Boehner, asked her to run. She said she wished the circumstances were different, ''but you have to take life as it's given.''

I can easily see party pressure from behind the scenes put on Mr. Ney for him to resign. This points to a nervousness that all the corruption scandals coming to light as abuses of highly visible Republicans will lose them seats in this November's election._________________A person's character is their destiny.

The Republican had insisted he would not resign, even if indicted over his dealings with Abramoff. In his first primary test in a decade, Ney won 68 percent of the vote May 2 against a little-known opponent.

Which is to say 32% of people are willing to vote for anyone else... and those people are already Republicans.

Quote:

But in a statement released by his campaign Monday morning, Ney said he had decided to withdraw from his race for a seventh term.

''Ultimately this decision came down to my family. I must think of them first, and I can no longer put them through this ordeal,'' said Ney, who has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.

Wow, dude, maybe you should have thought this through before you became a corrupt politician? You could have saved your family loads of ordeal.

Quote:

He plans to serve the remainder of his term, his statement said.

Because, you know, facing your co-workers everyday after a fall from grace is the perfect form of republican self-flagellation.

Quote:

Ney spokeswoman Katie Harbath said the congressman was not available for comment.

The bones of dead children don't grind themselves, and Satan puts these people on a deadline!

Quote:

''It's a very sad time,'' Padgett said of Ney's decision, first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on its Web site.

Yes, it's so sad, another man lost to the corruption of Washington... soon to be replaced by someone else who will be lost to the corruption of Washington. Just an aside here, but do you think the man misquoted as saying, 'I cannot tell a lie' is spinning in the old grave at having his city be one of the centers of corruption in America?

Quote:

Ney told her ''just that there's only so much he can take. He said, 'I have to do this,''' Padgett said.

Don't bring your bdsm games into such a heartwarming tale of political corruption!

..

and now i'm bored, and didn't even bother to point out logical inconsistences... move on, nothing to see here!_________________bi-chromaticism is the extraordinary belief that there exists only two options
each polar opposite to each other
where one is completely superior to the other.

Joined: 09 Jul 2006Posts: 9702Location: I have to be somewhere? ::runs around frantically::

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:27 pm Post subject:

Can you believe that there are people that say that there are no scandals because the charges don't pan out? Isn't the point of most of these charges to get them out of public office?_________________Before God created Las he pondered on all the aspects a woman might have, he considered which ones would look good super-inflated and which ones to leave alone.
After much deliberation he gave her a giant comfort zone. - Michael

Yeah, it's logical there is no scandal if nobody is declared guilty...

Right, and I've got some wonderful mountain forest land in Florida for sale.

I'm just still pissed that Ken Lay got away with it, and is now no longer considered guilty because he died before sentencing. If he's dead, his wife and kids get to inherit his ill gotten gains, and if he pulled a fast one and is on a beach in brazil somehwere, he personally got to keep his Ill gotten gains. The employess and investors in Enron get fucked out of justice.

Why can't his estate be found guilty by association with the prick and allow that money to go to those who deserve it?

Back on topic, Ney won't set foot back in the House since he's now a lame duck, he will spend his time making connections, and will make umpteen millions of dollars in the future as a lobbiest. And he gets that nice pension plan and lifetime health benefits. Boy he's being penalized a lot.

Bloody hell. Why can't someone penalize me like that? I could use the cash...

By accident or design, the timing of Ney's announcement works to his financial benefit. Under federal law, he is allowed to use any leftover campaign funds to pay his rising legal bills. As of June 30, he had roughly $417,000 in the bank.

Buggering bales of bullshit bastardy. ^2._________________Wow. Tatsuya is god. Or the dragon...

i _thought_ i heard something about this on the radio this morning. one more down!

yeah, i like they way they all loudly proclaim their innocence, and then all of a sudden, their worries about their family just completely overcome them. sort of like - who was the guy who was speaker of the house before hastert? the one who resigned rather hastily when (after he had been baying after clinton about monica) it came out that he had kept a mistress in washington for _years_?

and given that one of his staffers has already been convicted for corrupting him, i doubt ney is getting a get-out-of-jail free card. especially since he is tied in with abramoff - the prosecuters are getting really interested in running down all of that lot. they will go after ney, and ney's best hope is that he can turn on enough of his former fellow congressmen to justify a reduced prison term.

and as to those burgeoning legal bills - those lawyers charge for every panicky call they take about "he's been subpoena'd! what do i do now? oh shit - he's been _convicted_ - WHAT DO I DO NOW???"

but is it really legal for him to just ask some buddy to step on to the ballot for him? i mean, aren't the _voters_ supposed to get some say in that? or at least the state party...not that his stand-in will have much chance, unless (when it comes to november) the republican viters decide _any_ republican is better than none (which admittedly, a large number of them seem to go with)._________________aka: neverscared!

this is off yahoo, but it's the most recent story i've read -- the one that made me think about her. i read it on nyt, but it must have been in the AP wire box.

the thing i like best about this article, and i think it's a damned shame that the vast majority of our american compatriots will miss the significance of it entirely, is the "gee willikers" manner with which jeb bush shoves yet another shiv in her back and TWISTS. what a goddam snake he is.

he just couldn't resist the opportunity to remind all the readers that the only thing they've ever heard about kathleen harris is BAAAAD NEWS.
___________

ORLANDO, Fla. - Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record)' floundering Senate campaign received a grand jury subpoena from federal investigators, but she kept it from her top advisers, prompting several staff members to quit when they found out, a former aide said Wednesday.

The Justice Department is investigating Harris' dealings with Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing another congressman.

Harris, a Republican, has trailed Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record) in most polls. Fundraising has been slow, GOP leaders tried desperately to find another candidate, and core campaign staff members have quit in recent months.

Some Republican leaders have warned that Harris — the former Florida secretary of state who played a key role in the 2000 recount that gave George W. Bush the White House — is so hated among Democrats that she could drag down the entire GOP ticket.

In June, the Harris campaign received a legal bill for thousands of dollars that contained a reference to "DOJ subpoena," according to the aide, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to avoid hurting his career.

It was only then that Harris disclosed that the campaign had received the Department of Justice subpoena, the aide said.

About two weeks later, the aide and several other campaign staff quit. The disclosure was one of several factors that led to their departures, the aide said.

Harris was reached on her cell phone Wednesday by the AP, but said she had a bad connection and referred the call to her campaign office.

Campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Marks said Harris is cooperating with the investigation but is "not a target." She would not comment further.

This week, two former members of Harris' congressional and Senate campaign staffs said they had been contacted by the FBI.

The receipt of the subpoena was first reported by The Tampa Tribune, which spoke with former campaign manager Glenn Hodas. Hodas, the third person to hold the position, resigned after three months on the job, saying Harris was uncontrollable.

Wade admitted giving Harris $32,000 in illegal campaign contributions. Harris sought $10 million in federal money to help Wade's company, MZM Inc., set up a Navy counterintelligence program in her district. The request was rejected.

Harris has said that she was not aware of the illegal contributions and that she was only trying to bring high-wage jobs to her district.

In February, Wade pleaded guilty to bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, in exchange for help in getting $150 million in Pentagon contracts.

Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that Harris has had "a tough go at it."

"I feel bad. Every time there's a story about the Senate race it's about her troubles rather than about ideas that might help our country or help our state," he said. "It just seems like it's one bad news story after another."

Still, those who've worked for her say nothing will get her out of the race that even Republican leaders say she can't win.

"I honestly believe that if she's indicted, she will continue to run," said Jamie Miller, a former campaign manager. "At this point I don't know what she could be thinking."